Graveyard
by Last of the Loneliness
Summary: The future is what it is. It's the past that hurts. There's a reason she doesn't dwell on the memories.


There she was, seated by the water's edge, one hand planted in the mud while the other stretched out, flame trailing from one fingertip.

She didn't look up as Azula approached; her attention was focused on the dragonfly hovering above the surface of the pond. With intense concentration, the little girl focused, moved her hand in a sudden motion, and—

The insect chose that lucky moment to zoom off, conserving the rest of its pitiful lifespan.

The girl's hand fell to her side, her lips making a small noise of discontent.

"Next time."

The girl jerked, having not heard Azula even when the princess stood right behind her. It would have been amusing if it was anyone else. As it was, it was disappointing. She should have heard. Azula could have just as easily been an assassin.

"It's rude to sneak up on _royalty._" The girl got to her feet, staring disapprovingly up at Azula. There was a hint of pride, even haughtiness, about her; it was something in the way she held herself, how she stood with her feet slightly apart.

"Forgive me. I haven't been here in a while." Azula smiled at the private joke, though her attention was fixed on the girl, whose eyebrows furrowed as she studied Azula.

"Who are you? Were you here when I was younger? You look—familiar."

"I'm honored you remember me, Princess," Azula said. It would be interesting to see whether the girl would pick up on her sarcasm. She had grown used to burying it so deep that anyone would swallow her words hook, line, and sinker without suspecting their basic insincerity. "I know you, yes, but we haven't met."

"I _asked_ who you were." The girl took a step forward, her voice hinting at a threat.

"So you did." Azula tilted her head, not bothering to conceal a catlike smile across her lips. This was more fun than it should have been. "But telling you is boring, so why don't you guess who you think I am?"

The girl raised her eyebrows. Azula predicted she wouldn't turn down a challenge, and she was right. It took a long pause, during which Azula felt as if the girl's golden eyes were staring right through her.

"You look like my mother."

"…Do I?" Her smile remained intact, but Azula was surprised to feel a twinge somewhere deep inside of her.

"She doesn't have any siblings, does she? I thought Lu Ten was my only cousin. Who are you? Are you even allowed to be here?" The girl's voice was growing louder, one hand raised. "Answer me!"

"You're very impatient for a princess. And earlier you were lecturing me on manners!" Azula shook her head, clicking her tongue softly.

Azula saw it coming long before the girl jumped and spun, sending a fireball from one foot in a move meant more to intimidate than to harm. Before she could land, Azula grabbed the girl's arm, twisting it behind her back.

"Let go of me!" The other hand was there in an instant, a handful of fire heading for Azula's face. Azula caught that wrist as well, holding the girl easily. Weak. So weak.

"You're pretty good, aren't you?" Azula murmured. The girl was still struggling, but she wasn't about to break free any time soon. "You're better than everyone else your age. You can even beat some adults. So you think you're fine to leave yourself undefended. You think you're invincible. You aren't. There are others like me."

The girl stilled, perhaps realizing exactly how dangerous her captor was. For a few seconds, Azula allowed her mind to toy with the idea of what would happen if she killed the girl. Would she die as well, or just disappear on the spot? It seemed more like murder than suicide.

"There you go." Azula released her. The girl turned, her eyes narrowed. Probably her glare was supposed to be vicious, but Azula just found it amusing.

"Who are you?"

This time, Azula had an answer, one that rolled more easily off her tongue than the truth would. "I'm your cousin."

The girl's lips curled into an expression of scorn, and for the first time Azula took note of how strange it was to be looking at her. She didn't yet adorn her mouth with paint or her eyes with kohl; her face was rounder and her eyes seemed larger in it. It was less like looking in a mirror and more as if she was remembering _Zuko_ as a child. An unsettling feeling.

"There's only Lu Ten."

"How sure are you?" The words came before Azula could stop them. It didn't occur to her to censor them. "How much do you really know about your mother's family? You can't say for certain she doesn't have siblings, _can you_?"

The girl's face contracted in something akin to disgust, as if she hated being confronted with the idea that there was anything she didn't know.

"So you aren't anybody important."

"Hmm, I suppose not. But I'm a stronger bender than you are, Princess. I could kill you and your brother and your cousin and take the throne for myself."

"Is that why you're here?" The girl lifted her hands again.

Azula sighed. She was rapidly boring of this talk. The child wasn't half as interesting as Azula had expected her to be. The palace gardens weren't the same place they were in her memories. Everything seemed smaller, the colors darker. Looking back on it, her childhood seemed dingy. She looked down at this girl, only a minor princess, not yet poised to take over the throne.

Rather than answering, Azula conjured a handful of fire and tossed it upward, watching blue sparks rain down over the two of them. It worked; the smaller girl jerked her head up to watch.

"…You're strong, aren't you?" The girl's expression changed again, the corners of her mouth hinting at a smile, her eyes glinting with intrigue: both excitement and a challenge.

"Only as strong as you'll be," Azula said. "I'll tell you something, but keep it a secret. Nobody will believe you anyway, so don't bother trying to spill. But you can bend blue fire too. You don't know it yet. But you will."

"How would you know something like that?"

Azula smiled. "Not just that. One day soon your father will be Fire Lord, and then something will happen to your brother, and you'll be the heir to the throne. One day all the nations will know your name. One day you'll bend lightning, too, so young that some of your classmates still struggle with fire, and you'll learn everything you need to know, and one day…"

A shadow fell across Azula's thoughts then, and her smile flickered. As much as she wanted to push it away, and as much as she wanted not to think about it, there was the desolate reality that happiness was not the only thing in this girl's future.

"And one day you'll lead troops into battle," Azula continued, the words falling more slowly from her lips. _One day you'll take a knife to your own skin. _"You'll burn people as easily as sticks." _Your mother will leave, and your friends, and your brother. _"You'll serve at your father's right hand."

_He'll call you to his rooms and he'll tell you to take your clothes off, and you'll hold still and hope it ends quickly, and it'll hurt more than anything you've ever felt before, and it won't just be once and it won't just be twice and it'll happen over and over again until you've forgotten what normal felt like and until your body isn't yours anymore and…_

The thoughts were overwhelming, pressing against Azula's skull with such force that she felt she would implode. Such things were bad enough to think on her own, but she couldn't look at the girl in front of her while thinking them. She looked at the girl's bright golden eyes and her dark, silky hair, and the roundness of her face. She was just a child. She looked so young from the outside. But soon, Azula knew, there would be foreign hands on her skin and a future of blood and pain.

She wanted to protect the girl, to shelter her. Azula wasn't the maternal type, and most children were only irritating, but this small girl, so confident and yet so fragile, was the most important thing in the world.

But what could she do? Tell her to harden her mind? Give her tips on how exactly to dissociate when the physicality was too painful? Azula could count down the days in this girl's future before everything changed. She could tell her that all too soon Ursa would vanish and Ozai's lust would find an unfortunate new target, and she could tell her that the future ahead was incomprehensible to the girl she was then.

There was nothing she could do, because if none of it had happened, Azula wouldn't be standing there, talking to herself.

And so her mind was overwhelmed with visions of this girl, just a child, a _child_, staring in the mirror and finding herself unworthy, and cutting herself open and playing games with the blood, and naked under her father's hands while she desperately clung to a vision of the future that was suspended only by the weakest of threads…

"…What are you talking about? Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

This girl must be_ crazy_, the eight-year-old Azula decided. First she showed up and claimed to be Azula's cousin, and then she pretended to know everything about Azula's future, and now she was kneeling down, hands covering her face, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Nothing," the older girl said, lifting her face and smiling. It was unnerving, a blood-red smile that stretched her lips unnaturally wide. "It all turns out fine, doesn't it? You'll grow up to be just fine."

And Azula was completely taken aback when the older girl let out a roar like a wounded animal and slammed her fists down onto the grass, and the plants shriveled away and died, and all of the green burned…

burned…

burned.

"Azula!"

Azula recognized her brother's voice and blinked. It felt as if she had been caught in some sort of reverie, as if she'd been daydreaming, except she couldn't remember anything she had just seen. There was nothing whatsoever remarkable about her surroundings.

"Yeah, I'm coming! You'd better hide well!" Azula picked herself up and started running after Zuko's voice.

She couldn't remember, for the life of her, why there were tears in her eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Possibly utter shit. I've had the idea for a while, so I just ran with it. As usual, thoughts are greatly appreciated!**


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